By sportsnewsarena correspondent
Dec 05, 2017
An ordinary batting effort crippled Kenya cricket team and sent them tumbling to a disappointing six-wicket defeat to Nepal their second ICC World Cricket League Championship warm-up against in United Arab Emirates.
After being asked to bat first at the Nursery Oval Ground, Kenya were skittled by Man-of-the-Match Lalit Bhandari’s four-wicket haul, to capitulate to 110 all out in 32.2 overs of the allotted 50.
Defending the total, Kenya were down and dusted in 19.5 overs after their opponents put on a better batting display.
Nepal team which was without its key players including captain Paras Khadka, Vice-captain Gyanendra Malla, Binod Bhandari, Basant Regmi and Sompal Kami, won and invited Kenya to bat.
Kenyan made a positive start with its openers Rushab Patel and Alex Obanda creating a 54-run partnership for the first wicket. Patel smashed 27 off 27 balls while Obanda made 25 runs in 13 deliveries.
But losing out three batsmen cheaply back to back in Bhandari’s ball didn’t help the Kenyan side.
Third and fourth number batsmen Dhiren Gondaria and Rakep Patel were dismissed for five and three runs respectively while Collins Obuya who came to bat at fifth number was out for a duck off Bhandari’s delivery.
Notable contributor
Gurdeep Singh was other notable contributor for Kenya with 45 off 22 balls while Nelson Odhiambo added on 10 runs.
Sandeep Lamichhane supported Bhandari in bowling adding two wickets for Nepal while Karan KC, Sagar Pun and MD Aarif Sheikh claimed one wicket each.
Sharad Vesawkar who was captaining the side in the absence of Khadka smashed 31 runs facing 50 balls while unbeaten Dipendra Singh Airee was top scorer for Nepal with 35 runs of 46 balls.
Anil Kumar Sah contributed 13 runs while Aarif Sheikh remained unbeaten on four runs. Nelson Odhiambo bagged two wickets for Kenya while Lucas Oluoch added another.
On Saturday, Kenya had beaten United States of America (USA) by five wickets at Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi.
Emmanuel Bundi who was the Man of the Match in the US win was rested in the Nepal match with Peter Koech given a chance to prove his selection.
The Nairobi Gymkhana played leaked 27 runs in his 18 deliveries. Nehemiah Odhiambo who bagged a wicket with the first ball in the win against US was also rested.
